Time-honored tradition

BookPage cooking column by Sybil Pratt

, Joan Nathan's classic, was originally published 25 years ago. Now, to mark its silver anniversary, which happily coincides with the 350th anniversary of the arrival of the first Jews in America, there's Joan Nathan's Jewish Holiday Cookbook, a treasure-trove of tradition that combines the original Jewish Holiday Kitchen and The Jewish Holiday Baker with extras from her syndicated TV show and New York Times articles. The nearly 400 recipes are fully updated, revised and re-tested and come from Jewish cuisine that took root around the world in Israel, Egypt, Mexico, Yemen, Bulgaria, Poland, Russia and beyond. Some of the recipes are vestiges of what families have lost, but all celebrate the importance of the traditional food, in all its wonderful regional variation, that has become the culinary mortar binding the culture together. Following the Jewish holiday calendar, Nathan starts with the Sabbath meal, then moves from Rosh Hashanah to Shavuot. Mazel tov, Joan! You've given us a new, very usable family heirloom.